Monday, May 24, 2010

Unintended Consequences

Greece vs the USA?

A lot of people are talking about how similar the situation is between where Greece is right now and where the USA is heading. I however see a major difference. In Greece, when faced with cutting government spending, the people exploded into major demonstrations that quickly turned violent demanding the government continue spending money they don't have. In the United States, as the government looks to increase spending, the people meet in major demonstrations that are peaceful and tell the government to stop spending money they don't have! I guess it is good to be a right of center country.

UN moves focus from Climate Change to Saving Species

I've said that Climate Change is not the problem that the AGW supporters say it is. The science is weak and integrity of the proponents has been damaged badly. Evidently, the UN can see the handwriting on the wall.

"The UN's biodiversity report – dubbed the Stern for Nature – is expected tosay that the value of saving "natural goods and services", such as pollination,medicines, fertile soils, clean air and water, will be even higher – between 10 and 100 times the cost of saving the habitats and specieswhich provide them."

Be prepared to hear less and less about climate change and more and more about saving species.

News that isn't News.

"Most economists are not susceptible to partisanship in their work, a newscholarly study finds. But anyone who reads Paul Krugman's columns in the New York Times will hardly be surprised to learn he is a glaring exception to the study's findings.

He consistently changes his fiscal views depending on the party in power."

Obamacare an update"Remember how Obamacare was going to save big bucks and reduce wait time in emergency rooms? The idea was that millions of previously uninsured Americans accustomed to using ERs for basic medical treatment would snatch up Obamacare coverage and start getting primary care from regular (and cheaper) medical practices.

Nice thought. But it doesn’t look like it’ll pan out.

Indeed, notes Rick Dallam, it looks like 'it’s going to be exactly the opposite over the next four to eight years.' In an article in The Hill, Dallam, a health care partner at a firm that designs health care facilities, notes: 'We don’t have the primary care infrastructure in place in America to cover the need. Our clients are looking at and preparing for more emergency department volume, not less.'”